The present invention relates generally to the extraction of slender posts from the ground and particularly to a fixture for engaging the post so that an upwardly directed force against the fixture easily extracts the post from the ground.
The highway departments of the respective states of the United States, as well as municipalities and other governmental units within the states, and the federal government, employ thousands and even millions of posts for supporting signs of one form or another. Signs are changed for whatever reason and posts removed from the ground. Presently, highway departments employ large equipment, such as power shovels, to remove the posts from the ground. A shovel is connected to a chain wrapped around the post and the shovel lifted to remove the post. Such equipment must be driven or hauled to the site and operated often by well paid, experienced personnel. As such, post removal is costly. The operation, in addition, may be difficult, if the ground is soft and the equipment moved onto private property. Further, space is not always available for the use of such equipment.
There are, in the post extracting art, devices that engage posts in a manner that uses integral lugs on the posts in the extracting process. This is in particular reference to the devices shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,040,601 and 4,422,621 to Boardman and Eckern respectively. In Eckern, for example, a cross-bar device 21 engages integral lugs 12 on a T-shaped (in cross section) fence post for supporting strands of wire used on ranches and farms. Without the integral lugs, the devices of Eckern and Boardman do not have the ability to engage the posts for lifting purposes.